A bright day for a dark shadow

Some members of the local community were able to make time to see Monday's solar eclipse, and they all had different ways of viewing it.

Rachel Steffan

The sky was blue and bright with billowy white clouds, and the gleaming sun in the midst of it all.

Many observers tried to use the selfie mode on cell phones to safely observe the eclipse, but found the glare from the sun made it very difficult to see the moon’s shadow.

Others stood outside of a hardware store, taking turns looking through double panes of welder’s glass. When looking through this material, the sun resembled a crescent moon in a dark sky. One sheriff’s deputy stopped by a local auto shop and borrowed a welder’s mask to check out this fleeting celestial occurrence.

Another creative technique was to bring a large bowl of water outside and stand in just the right spot to catch the sun’s reflection in the water.

One DeRidder eclipse-viewer used a metal colander and projected many shadows through the holes, onto the pavement, in the shape of the moon passing by the sun.

A popular option was the pinhole camera, made with cereal- and other types of boxes, which projected the eclipse into the box.

All in all, Beauregard and Vernon area lucked out with weather. And even though clouds got in the way from time to time, the eclipse was easy to catch.